LINGO and the XYZ Agenda

The UN climate negotiations have failed to deliver binding emissions cuts and CO2 emissions continue to rise. The proposed responses to the climate crisis are inadequate, unambitious, and in some cases counterproductive. False solutions are getting promoted, that do not reduce the problem overall, such as offsetting, CDM, carbon markets, agrofuels, big hydropower. Pledges to reduce emissions are voluntary and focused purely on the demand-side. In the absence of a global cap on emissions – which seems decades away – demand-side mitigation isn’t a guaranteed successful strategy.

The reality of mitigation is that to stay within the proposed 1.5°C or 2°C temperature rise, the taps must be turned off, and the better part of known reserves of fossil fuels must remain untouched in the ground (see the IPCC’s Fifth Assessment Report).

But at the UNFCCC, supply-side mitigation is currently not on the agenda. While the UN and governments stall, corporations invest heavily into expanding the fossil frontier into ever more sensitive environments through deep sea drilling and exploitation of shale gas and tar sands, locking us into a path of high emissions and a toxic future.

To build a climate friendly world requires alternative plans to live a good life (known in Latin America as “buen vivir”) powered fully by renewable energy. These plans will help us to effectively challenge the need for fossil fuels in our societies.